Better health and ageing for all Australians

Historical publications

Chief Medical Officer's Report 1999-2000

This report focuses on some key topics in Australia's health over the 1999-2000 financial year from the perspective of the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and the Department of Health and Aged Care.

In this section:

This publication is the report of the Chief Medical Officer, Professor Richard Smallwood (AO), to the Minister and Department of Health and Aged Care on the key features of the wide range of professional health issues for which he provides leadership. One of the keynotes for the year 1999-2000 is the performance of Australia's world class health system, which supports one of the highest healthy life expectancies in the world.

The Chief Medical Officer's Report 1999-2000 focuses on key health issues of the 1999-2000 financial year. These include:

  • improved safety and quality of health care services and increased access in rural and remote areas;
  • response to the possible threat to the safety of the Australian blood supply from vCJD 9mad cow disease';
  • increased funding for medical research;
  • initiatives to improve the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples; and
  • articulation of a national vision for the application of information and communication technologies to benefit consumers.
Presented in this report also, are summaries of progress in containing communicable and non-communicable diseases, showing a continued increase in the number of children being immunised. It also outlines continuing concerns for the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, in light of some encouraging gains attained to date.

PDF printable version of Chief Medical Officer's Report 1999-2000 (PDF 1190 KB)

Available in Sections:
PDF Version of Section 1: Cover, Contents and Foreword (PDF 239 KB)

PDF Version of Section 2: The Health of Australians (PDF 374 KB)

PDF Version of Section 3: Communicable Diseases (PDF 199 KB)

PDF Version of Section 4: Non Communicable Diseases (PDF 307 KB)

PDF Version of Section 5: Environmental Health (PDF 60 KB)

PDF Version of Section 6: International Health (PDF 68 KB)

PDF Version of Section 7: Health Workforce and Training (PDF 61 KB)

PDF Version of Section 8: Rural Health (PDF 73 KB)

PDF Version of Section 9: Research (PDF 75 KB)

PDF Version of Section 10: Safety and Quality (PDF 69 KB)

PDF Version of Section 11: Other Priorities and Initiatives (PDF 107 KB)

PDF Version of References (PDF 64 KB)

Help with accessing large documents

When accessing large documents (over 500 KB in size), it is recommended that the following procedure be used:

  1. Click the link with the RIGHT mouse button
  2. Choose "Save Target As.../Save Link As..." depending on your browser
  3. Select an appropriate folder on a local drive to place the downloaded file

Attempting to open large documents within the browser window (by left-clicking) may inhibit your ability to continue browsing while the document is opening and/or lead to system problems.

Help with accessing PDF documents

To view PDF (Portable Document Format) documents, you will need to have a PDF reader installed on your computer. A number of PDF readers are available through the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) Web Guide website.